The invention relates to a kit comprising various reagents in various vessels.
To perform numerous procedures with automated laboratory systems (workstations) in chemical, biochemical, biological, medical or forensic laboratories, reagents are required that can be used to prepare samples for analysis. One example of this is the purification of nucleic acids with the assistance of magnetic particles. Nucleic acids are repeatedly dissolved in special reagents, attached to magnetic particles, and then separated from the reagents.
In conventional methods, the reagents are generally placed manually on the work surface of the automated laboratory system. The reagents themselves are generally delivered in the form of an unorganized collection of sealed vessels enclosed in a plastic bag in a folding box made of cardboard. The user must open the vessels and place them in designated holding device (racks) at a predetermined position on the work surface. This ensures that the automated laboratory system accesses the correct reagent while the method is being automatically performed. The controls of the automated laboratory system naturally assume that the necessary reagents are provided at the designated positions on the work surface. In certain cases, the user must pour the contents of the individual reagent vessels into special system vessels that are recognized by the controls of the automated laboratory system.
WO 2008/003338 A, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a modular storage system for laboratory fluids with a support frame having a specific number of slots for at least two different laboratory vessel inserts that can be exchanged as desired and inserted into the slots of the support frame combined as desired in a form-fitting manner, and that each have at least one laboratory vessel and/or at least one compartment for at least one laboratory vessel.
It is time-consuming to place the vessels with the required reagents at the predetermined positions. This increases the danger of confusion. A collection of vessels can easily occur when the remaining reagents are in intermediate storage in refrigerators. This can give rise to confusion, for example, when vessels with different opening dates are confused. The user must therefore spend a lot of time organizing.
Another disadvantage is that reagent residue frequently remains in the vessels which cannot be removed by the automated laboratory system with a pipette or other dosing device. The user frequently needs to add more reagents, and this also increases costs.